One of the big questions that many have about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump is how the shooter was able to get onto the roof, close enough to be able to shoot Trump and hit three other people, killing one and wounding two others. Plus, why, once he was spotted, wasn’t he dealt with sooner, or why Trump wasn’t rushed off the stage?
It would appear that someone dropped the ball in a severe failure.
Now Real Clear Politics’ Susan Crabtree has some new information from sources within the Secret Service.
Crabtree said that Secret Service resources were diverted away from Trump’s rally to Jill Biden’s Pittsburgh event at the same time. She said this was done because of “agency protocol applying to Trump as a former president,” according to two of her sources within the Secret Service community.
What the heck? So what they’re saying is that because they were treating Trump just as a former president, not necessarily the current candidate with a lot of threats against him, Jill Biden was given priority over him.
That wasn’t all. Additionally, Crabtree explained from another source in the Secret Service community there were problems because the team had a lot of replacements.
There were also many supplemental agents from different field offices who were not Trump’s regular detail, providing security at the rally because Trump’s regular detail has been overworked.
“Trump has a permanent detail, however it’s much smaller in the amount of bodies,” the source said. “His detail has been worked so hard with all the travel that they’re working 7 days a week with shift changes. so HQ sends in temp agents to supplement – not a good scenario. Mission Failure, IMHO.”
According to the report, there were only two counter-snipers.
“I’m told the only permanent agent from trump’s detail during the rally was SAIC (Special Agent In Charge) Kern, two sources within the Secret Service community told me. All others were temps,” Crabtree reported. Pittsburgh “USSS Field Office had a Jill Biden visit and designated a lot of resources to her, the source said. Also – the advance work only occurred one-day beforehand bc of a lack of resources.”
Where were the resources? The Pittsburgh USSS Field Office had a Jill Biden visit and designated a lot of resources to her. “That is f—-ing unbelievable to me,” the source remarked.
Another Secret Service source says approval for the Counter Sniper Team was only granted the day before the rally – and that is not enough time for a two-man team to do their survey. That’s nowhere near enough time – a site like that should have had at least three Secret Service counter-sniper teams at the very least.”
If this is true, that’s incredibly troubling and may go a long way to explaining why there were problems.
READ MORE: REPORTS: Trump Requested Heightened Security Resources From Secret Service for Weeks, Was Denied
Disturbing Questions Emerge: Secret Service Knew Rooftop Was a Vulnerability—
Why Wasn’t It Protected?
The Secret Service Chief of Communications, Anthony Guglielmi, responded to a prior report about there not being enough resources, denying that the Trump detail requested additional resources and those were rebuffed.
“In fact, we added protective resources & technology capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” he said.
If that were true, why wasn’t the roof covered properly? Why wasn’t the shooter picked up from an area that should have been a top priority to make sure was safe since it was a high vantage point? If they had everything, then we’re talking about the Secret Service just completely missing or not reacting to obvious dangers, and that would raise even more questions.
Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino called on Guglielmi to resign.
